the story is better now i'm beautiful
by beyond-the-twilight
Summary: "To be called beautiful is all she ever really wanted" - Santana and her mess of a life; featuring Santana/her family; Santana/Puck; Santana/Matt; Santana/Brittany; Santana/Finn; Santana/Rachel


**A/N: Just a quick little one-shot that I wrote because I adore Santana. I do not own Glee.

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**Mark Lopez:**

She has three older brothers who had all moved out of home before she was even born. Her mum and dad had her brothers in their teenage years, and their early twenties, and when the boys grew up; they decided they wanted to try again.

Her mum was the strict one – only one scoop of ice-cream, and no fizzy drink on weekdays – and her dad was the nice one – two scoops _and _chocolate sauce, and coke when mum wasn't looking – and it was a perfect childhood.

Or it was, until she turned ten and her dad stopped being the nice one and became the alcoholic douche that got laid off and couldn't find more work to support his family.

Her mum started working longer shifts at the hospital, and by the time she got to high school, her dad was drunk almost of all the time. When she brought home a B on her first math's test, he said she was useless. When she got onto the Cheerio's, he called her a slut. When she went on her first date with a boy, he called her ugly, and said that no boy would ever want her.

By the time he got off his ass and left, she was convinced that no boy would ever love her. After all, if her own dad didn't think she was beautiful, who would?

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**Puck:**

She knows Puck is an idiot before she even gets involved with him but she still gets tingles in her stomach when he smirks in her direction. Quinn's already got her eyes focused on Finn Hudson, the dumb as bricks quarterback of the football team, and it's made her realize that she needs a powerful boyfriend too.

They don't come more powerful than Puck. The guy is legendary and no one dares to mess with him because he's got a crazy reputation and a scary attitude. Every other girl doesn't dare to do more than smile at him in the hallways but she's always been different and danger has always turned her on.

She walks up to him, asks him if he wants to go out on Friday night, and the rest is history. She has sex with him in the disabled toilet at the movies, and it's not the first time she's ever had sex, but it's definitely the best. He's a legend for a reason.

She assumes that this means he's her boyfriend because she always gets what she wants and boys never, ever walk away from her. Puck's not a boy though, so he drops her off at her house after the movie, doesn't say thank you and drives away, without even promising to call her the next day.

She promises herself that she's done with him because no guy gets away with treating her like that. It's a lie though, because they hook-up in the janitor's closet the next day, and their unconventional story spins from there.

They're never actually boyfriend and girlfriend, even if she says that they are, because he sleeps with everything that moves and she refuses to shackle herself to a dumbass like that (despite the fact that she never, ever cheats on him).

He calls her bang-able and smoking hot at least once a day and comments on her legs and her ass at every opportunity. Her heart beats a tiny bit faster every time he walks past her (but she's sure that it's just indigestion because she _doesn't _feel anything for him), and she cries at night sometimes when he's been a huge jerk. She's always prided herself on being different but Puck makes her just another teenage girl.

(She breaks up with him one day over his credit score because she's so tired of being second best to him. They've been "together" for about five months and he's never once called her beautiful. That's all she ever really wanted).

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**Matt:**

Matt's different from the normal boys she dates. He brings a rose on their first date, and he has a cute smile on his face that makes her feel really special. He rambles about football and glee and family and she doesn't remember the last time she had this much fun.

He helps her pour bread sticks into her handbag, and he even wraps a few more in a napkin so that she can take them home, and he's the perfect guy. She thinks that she could fall in love with him, so she feels like even more of a dick when she gets drunk at a party and makes out with Puck.

She doesn't tell Matt because he'd either end things with her completely (she doesn't know if she could deal with that) or forgive her (and she knows she can't deal with that), so she keeps quiet.

Well, she keeps quiet until he asks her out on a second date. She wants to say yes, and she's even planning her outfit in her head when she realizes that she can't hurt this boy. She turns him down, says some horrible thing that she really doesn't mean, and he turns and walks away.

She doesn't cry over Matt because she doesn't deserve to, but she knows that she just pushed away the only boy who was ever likely to call her beautiful.

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**Brittany:**

Brittany is her best friend. They've been best friends since kindergarten, and it's the kind of friendship you see in movies. They tell each other everything, and they link pinkies while walking, and she's never trusted anyone as much as she trusts Brittany.

When they move into high school, she realizes that Brittany isn't as smart as other kids. She didn't really notice it in primary school but when the other kids start teasing the blonde, she knows she has to do something.

They try out for the Cheerio's because no one bullies the cheerleaders, and suddenly, Brittany's invincible. The teachers stop calling on her in class (knowing that Coach Sylvester will personally kill them if they pick on one of the cheerleaders) and the other kids don't laugh at Brittany's odd comments, and it's _perfect. _Plus, Brittany loves to dance, and she's never been happier than when they're cheering.

One day, they're getting changed after cheerleading practice, and Brittany calls her pretty (she says it like it's no big deal just a casual 'you look pretty San').

She thinks that's the closest she'll ever get to being called beautiful, so she kisses Brittany. The blonde kisses her back, and suddenly, they're more than just best friends. Maybe Brittany doesn't call her beautiful, but she calls her pretty, and that's enough.

(Brittany becomes her everything, so it hurts more than ever when she chooses Artie).

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**Finn:**

The Finn thing was a mistake, from start to finish. Coach Sylvester told her to seduce a younger man to stay on the team, so she seduced a younger man to stay on the team. She doesn't know why Finn was the first guy to enter her head, but she thinks it's probably because of Glee. They're always the first people that she thinks of and Finn was the only available option out of all of them (Puck's older than her, Mike is Matt's best friend, and she won't do that to Matt, Kurt's gay, Jesse has a stupid haircut).

She takes him to a motel, thinking that it will be romantic, but instead, she feels dirty. They have sex, and it's different from the other times. He's trying so hard, and it's not the best, but she feels like he cares. He cares enough to impress her.

Maybe he's the guy that will finally see her as something more than hot.

After, he says that he regrets it, and it meant nothing to him, because he's in love with the midget. She acts like she doesn't care because she's Santana Lopez and she doesn't get tied down with stupid things like this. He buys her a burger then tells her to keep it a secret, and she's never felt like such a slut before. At least the other people she was with weren't ashamed of her.

She leaves him after dinner and runs all the way to Brittany's house. She spends the night in her best friend's bed, and tries to forget what just happened. Finn Hudson is one of the biggest mistakes she's ever made.

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**Puck - part II**

It's after Beth, and after Quinn's moved on with that blonde kid with that large mouth. Brittany's all wrapped up in Artie, and Finn's dating the hobbit, and Puck looks a little lost when he shows up on her doorstep on a Friday night. She didn't go to the party because she just didn't feel like drinking and making out with some guy she doesn't even care about, and he didn't go because he doesn't know if he fits in that world anymore.

She kisses him because he's always been her weakness, and she thinks that this time will be different. He's changed a lot since he gave away his daughter, and she likes the new and improved Puck. He's less of a jerk and more of a man, and he still kisses like he's God's gift to the world. He pulls off her top and she wiggles out of her skirt, and they do it on the couch. It's so much like old times that she smiles instead of smirks, and she realizes that she's missed him.

They watch a movie after, and then he leaves, but he calls the next morning even though he didn't say that he would. She thinks that this is what having a boyfriend is like - movies on the couch, kisses that taste like popcorn, and suprise phone calls, and shockingly, she likes it. She's not kidding when she tells Man-Hands and Tubbers that she's dating Puck, because this time feels real. It feels so much better than the last time.

It explodes like always though, because neither of them can hold onto a good thing. He kisses another cheerleader under the bleachers and she keys his truck in retaliation, and before they know it, they're slipping back into old patterns. He tells her it's over through text message ("going out with Stacey on Friday; it was fun while we lasted bbe"), and she slashes his tyres because he's always loved his truck more than anything else.

They've always been better at revenge than at love.

(And then she spreads a rumour that he has several different types of sexually transmitted diseases so that Stacey - and all other girls - will refuse to go out with him).

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**Finn - part II:**

She tells the Hobbit about the motel-and-dinner date because she's bored and Ru-Paul is getting so annoying. It shuts the midget up and it's entertaining, so it almost cancels out the pain in her chest when Finn says that it meant nothing; that _she _means nothing (it's like her father all over again).

She always promised herself that she wouldn't be the next girl to fall for Finn Hudson's stupid smile, or dumbass comments, but after the epic "Finchel" break-up, she realizes that she's already fallen for him. It becomes her mission to seduce him again because it must just be a sexual craving. There's no way that Santana Lopez could have real feelings for Finn Hudson. For God's sakes, the guy was almost at the bottom of the social pyramid, and she didn't date losers at the bottom.

He's not into the whole "quick seduction" plan though. He wants to take her out on dates, and follow her around, and buy her flowers on Valentine's Day. He wants to sing soppy duets with her in Glee practice, and hold her hand as they walk down the hallway, and at first, she just wants to punch him in the face. Honestly, why would a straight teenage guy turn down sex just so that he could hold her hand? After a while though, she started to like it.

She'd ask him to take her to school and he'd show up with a hot chocolate made with skim milk, because he knew all about her chocolate craving. He'd stand in the corridor by her locker just to hold her books. He was the perfect gentleman, even if she had to remind him to defend her when guys on the football teams made comments about her (he never was the best at defending people). She noticed though, when he took her to Breadsticks, that he never called her beautiful.

It was always 'you look hot tonight Santana' or 'I really like that shirt' or 'wow... mail-man, mail-man, mail-man' but never 'you look beautiful'.

The final straw came when she overheard him telling Treasure Trail that she looked beautiful. She was not going to be second best yet again.

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**Rachel:**

She runs off the stage after singing a solo at Nationals, and Rachel is waiting there. She prepares herself for a fight, even tensing her body, because she and Rachel never see eye-to-eye on anything.

"That was beautiful Santana", she says quietly, but she's smiling so she knows that she's telling the truth. "Just like you", she adds, before walking off.

_That was beautiful… just like you_.

Well, fuck... it just had to be Rachel that said it. She finally got what she had always wanted, but now she had a hell of a lot more problems.


End file.
